James and Lily
by NeverClever
Summary: Short glimpses into the life and relationship of James and Lily, starting their fifth year.
1. Fifth Year

Chapter 1: Fifth Year

It was fall. The leaves on the trees in the Forbidden Forest were changing to beautiful reds and yellows, the air was crisp with slight breezes making the leaves fall around the grounds, and every night there was apple strudel and pumpkin pastries for dessert in the Great Hall. This season was Lily's favorite and she spent as much time as possible on the grounds studying or just watching the giant squid making lazy ripples in the lake. Unfortunately there was one other person who seemed to be outside every time she was.

James Potter.

 _There he is again!_ She thought agitatedly, slamming one of her potions textbooks closed. He was sitting under one of the large trees by the lake, tossing a snitch up in the air only to catch it again before it had a chance to fly away. With him was Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew. They seemed to be his constant companions.

Lily glared in his direction only to find him staring at her. She locked eyes with him, daring him to look away. When he didn't, Lily huffed in frustration and gathered the rest of her books, shutting them with a bit more force than was necessary. She glanced back again as she stood up. James was still staring at her. It seemed he hadn't looked away once, as Sirius and Peter were now chasing the escaped snitch around; Sirius having fun with it while Peter huffed his way around the large tree.

"What nerve!" Lily said loudly as she headed back up to the castle, stomping up the stairs towards the library. "Why was he staring at me? The stupid, arrogant-"

"Anyone I know?"

Lily spun on the spot, dropping her books, but not bending to retrieve them. James Potter stood in front of her, a sly grin on his face.

"Here, let me help." James bent to pick up some of Lily's potions notes, but before he had a grip on them Lily smacked his hand sharply causing him to withdraw his arm.

"I can manage!" She snapped, her red hair falling into her eyes as she gathered her things. "Why don't you go and find some first years to torment and leave me alone?"

James paid no attention to her attempts to insult him, instead bending again to help Lily with her books. She grabbed the last scrolls from his grip and stood, still glaring at him.

"Why were you staring at me? And why did you follow me?" She asked, her eyes narrowing. James shrugged.

"I dunno…" He scratched his head, seeming to actually ponder the answer to her question as if he didn't know the answer himself. Finally he answered: "Why not?"

Lily rolled her eyes and began walking up the stairs again, praying James would stay on the stairs and leave her alone.

"Because it's creepy and annoying!" She called behind her.

"Creepy and annoying?" James repeated, following her up the stairs. "Hmm… I'd say more charming and attractive." He shot Lily a grin. Lily huffed and walked quickly into the library.

"Would you stop following me?" She whispered as James trailed close behind her towards one of the large oak tables.

"Who says I'm following you? I happen to be in here to study!" James sat in the chair across from Lily, who was ignoring him and organizing her scrolls on the table in front of her.

"See, I'm a responsible student!" James continued in a whisper. "Who are you to keep me from my studies?" Finally Lily looked up at him.

"Right. A 'responsible student' who studies without books."

"Ah, but we're in a library, full of books!"

"Very insightful." Lily retorted, opening her potions book. "Why don't you go find one of those books and leave me alone?" James didn't respond. He pushed his glasses up his nose and ran a hand through his hair.

"Go out with me."

Lily paused in the middle of scratching difficult potions equations on her scroll, and looked up at him.

"What?"

"Go out with me." James smiled again, running his hand through his already messy hair. "You're here, I'm here, let's go out." Lily stared at him for a moment, her jaw slightly open.

"You are _unbelievable_!" She shouted, her hand slamming down on the oak table. The whispered conversations around them stopped and everyone turned to face the pair as Madame Pince leaned around a book shelf to shush them pointedly. Lily turned pink and looked down at her notes again, but James seemed unperturbed by the attention. He winked at a group of first year girls who were staring at him, and they erupted into a bout of giggles. Lily shoved her work into her bag hurriedly, not even waiting for the ink to dry, and left the library.

"Hey! Evans! Wait!" James shouted, running after her, the angry cries of "Quiet!" from Madame Pince echoing down the hall behind him. James caught up to her as she waited for the stairs to change.

"Just hear me out, okay?"

Lily sighed, exhausted, and then faced the annoyance behind her.

"What could you possibly have to say to me that is so urgent you can't leave me alone?" The stairs changed and Lily began walking up them, James still standing on the landing. James stood still for a moment before shouting after her:

"You have really beautiful eyes! Did you know that?"

Lily paused for half a second, surprised, then shook her head and continued towards Gryffindor Tower. James watched her go and smiled to himself.

"So she didn't say yes. Big deal." He said to himself, shrugging. "There's always tomorrow." James smiled crookedly, then walked back out to the big tree where his friends were waiting for him.


	2. Sixth Year

Chapter 2: Sixth Year

Lily sat in the common room pouring over notes that were spread over the table in front of her. Though her NEWTs were still a year away, she found the pressure to succeed was ever mounting. Her exams were coming up and she felt totally and completely unprepared.

Just then, James Potter entered the common room, though the only reason Lily could tell it was him was the untidy black hair sticking out above the stack of books he carried in with him. He sighed as he dropped them onto one of the tables across the room and adjusted his glasses before sitting down and settling into his work.

 _That's strange._ Lily thought, watching James. _Where are the boys he's always hanging around with?_ It was odd to see any without the other, and odder still to see James studying without the motherly, nagging insistence of Remus in his ear.

 _He must be as stressed as I am…_ Lily thought, watching James as he wrote furiously on an already mangled piece of parchment. She noticed that his handwriting was still the messy scrawl it was back when they were eleven and assigned as partners for potions. She remembered how, though he had tried to hide it, James was embarrassed by his handwriting and had insisted Lily write all the notes for them. At the time, Lily just assumed it was because he didn't want to do any work, but looking at it objectively now…

 _I've been rather unfair in my judgements of him._ She realized with a jolt. She didn't like to think herself rude or judgmental at all, yet the proof was in front of her. How many years had she written him off as an airheaded jock? How many times had she and Severus-

Lily's thoughts stopped cold. Though it had been a year since her friendship with Severus ended, the pangs of her heart still felt as urgent as they had that day. Lily shook her head to clear her thoughts, returning again to James.

She hadn't ever thought too much about it, really. She had written him off in her brain as a show-off bully.

 _But that can't be all there is to him._ Lily mused, sucking on the end of her quill. _Remus has been friends with him since first year, and he's a genuine person. He's a prefect! What about the others?_ Lily scrunched her nose in concentration. _I don't really know much about Peter… He seems nice enough, but he doesn't stop James and Sirius from picking on Severus-_

Lily stopped again. _Why do I keep thinking about Severus?_ She thought angrily, huffing loudly. _He's made it clear that he doesn't like to hang around 'mudbloods' and I certainly don't want to be around that kind of dark magic…_

Lily thought back to the day she ended her friendship with Severus. It was tough to think about, but she hoped the more she did, the easier it would become to separate all emotions from that memory. She couldn't help but remember vividly the terrible bullying James and Sirius claimed was "just good fun".

 _Of course they can get away with stuff like that more easily now that Remus is a prefect…_

As the thoughts entered her head, she realized she actually hadn't seen James act up recently. Sure there was the normal fooling around in class, and the general rowdiness, but other than that…

 _What made him change?_

"Something I can help you with, Evans?"

Lily snapped back to reality, her gaze on James.

"What are you talking about?" She asked, genuinely puzzled. James laughed and Lily felt herself blush.

"You've been staring at me for the past twenty minutes! Normally I'd assume it's because of my devilishly handsome features, but you seem to be the only girl at this school that that doesn't affect. So what is it? Is there something on my face?" James scrubbed a sleeve on his cheek and Lily couldn't help but notice the slight scruff darkening his jaw line.

"Hello? Earth to Evans!" James laughed. "What's going on with you today?" Lily turned pinker than before but tried to hide it by glaring at him.

"Absolutely nothing! I was just thinking and you happened to be in my line of vision. I wasn't trying to stare at you, but believe me, it won't happen again!" With that, Lily gathered her things and stormed up the steps to the girls' dormitory; her footsteps and angry grumblings echoing down to the common room.

James chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. For a moment he had believed Lily really was angry with him; then he saw the blush that stained her cheeks. He stretched his arms above his head and sighed just as the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open. Sirius and Lupin entered, deep in conversation about Hufflepuff's chances against Slytherin in the next Quidditch match, Peter trailing behind, hanging on their every word. Sirius stopped and looked at James.

"You look happier than usual. What's up?" James shrugged in response but Lupin, glancing at the table across the room where Lily had forgotten her scroll of Transfiguration notes, shot Sirius a knowing look.

"Oh!" Sirius nodded and looked back at James. Peter looked fervently between Lupin and Sirius, a confused expression on his face.

"Oh get off it!" James said laughing. Sirius laughed at James' discomfort while Lupin filled in an oblivious Peter.

Upstairs, Lily lay in bed, staring at the cloth above her four poster. If she listened closely, she could hear the faint sounds of Sirius teasing James about something Lily could only assume was her. As much as she would deny it normally, the thought of Sirius teasing James about her made her smile.


	3. Seventh Year

Chapter 3: Seventh Year

Lily ran down the hall, her long red hair flying behind her.

 _Oh this is just great!_ She thought, running past a window covered in frost. _My homework isn't done, I'm going to be late for class, and of course I'm setting a great example as Head Girl!_

Lily sprinted the rest of the way down the corridor, turned the corner at break-neck speed then-

WHAM!

She crashed into something hard, dropping her books and notes everywhere and falling to the floor with a loud thump. The hard thing she crashed into sat up, rubbing its head and adjusting its glasses.

Oh no.

"Evans, are you okay?" James squinted at her through the break in his lenses, ignoring the group of third year girls who were giggling in the corner. Lily blinked a few times then nodded.

"Yeah, just a little bruised." She sat up slowly, checking for a concussion, then began gathering her papers from the floor. James stood up and grabbed the rest of her things that had rolled across the corridor.

"Why were you in such a hurry?" He asked, handing her a neat stack of her notes.

"I was trying not to be late for potions, but fat lot of good that did me seeing as I'm even later than before." Lily sighed and shoved her things into her bag haphazardly, getting ready to walk into class.

"You didn't hear? Potions was canceled today." James said, placing a hand on her shoulder to stop her from walking away. "Slughorn got sick."

"Oh…" Lily bit her lip in thought.

"He should be fine soon though, in case you were worried!" James added quickly. "I know you and him are close- I mean you're in the Slug Club so…" He rubbed at his neck awkwardly.

"Oh, your glasses are broken!" Lily frowned looking at him. "Did I do that?"

"Well, technically the fall to the ground did that, so I'd say you're off the hook." James smiled, took off his glasses, and quickly repaired them. "If _you_ had broken my glasses we would have had a problem."

"I would have fixed them, but you beat me too it!" Lily said indignantly, starting to walk back to the tower, James following her.

"That's not what I mean. Fixing the glasses is fine, but the emotional trauma from losing my sight, even for just a moment?" James tutted, shaking his head in mock seriousness. "I think you owe me one Evans."

"Wait, you said I didn't break your glasses, the fall did. Are you telling me you were lying before?" Lily teased him.

"No…" James paused, thinking. "But you did run into me, causing me to fall, which then broke my glasses. If you hadn't been so careless as to not watch where you were going, I wouldn't have fallen and broken my glasses causing the great emotional trauma I'm suffering from." James threw an arm over his eyes in a 'woe is me' gesture and Lily laughed.

"Are you sure the 'emotional trauma' you're suffering wasn't caused by looking in the mirror this morning?"

"Ouch, that's a low blow Evans. Now you're bullying me? And you're Head Girl too!" James and Lily stopped; they had reached the tower.

"Okay, fine. Say I did cause you this deep emotional trauma-"

"And you were bullying me!" James interjected. Lily laughed.

"Right. And say I was bullying you. What do I 'owe' you?" Lily watched as James leaned against the wall beside the Fat Lady's portrait, a finger to his chin, thinking.

"I'd say you owe me a date."

"Okay." Lily nodded her agreement, gave the Fat Lady the password, and climbed through the portrait hole. James started, then ran after her.

"Wait, seriously?" He grabbed her shoulder again to stop her.

"Are you saying you don't want to go out with me?" Lily asked, aware that she was being watched by a group of people by the fire, but ignoring them.

"No! Not at all! I mean, I just wasn't sure you really wanted to go out with me." James ran a hand through his hair, unsure. Lily smiled slightly and turned to walk up the steps to the girls' dormitory.

"I said 'yes' didn't I?" She called down, smiling fully now.

When James was sure she was out of sight, he did a little victory dance, then stopped quickly as the group in the corner laughed at him.

"Hey, wait! Ev- Lily!" He shouted up the stairs after her. She poked her head around the corner, her red hair falling around her shoulders. "Friday, at 7?"

She smiled and nodded.

"Friday."


	4. The Date

Chapter 4: The Date

The air was crisp, smelling always of pumpkin pastries, apple crisp, and something that can only be described as fall. Even though most people were out enjoying the weather, not every student had that luxury. It was 6:30 in the evening and Lily Evans was walking back to Gryffindor tower from the library, arms laden with books, bits of parchment, and worn out quills. She had a potions exam on Monday, a paper on the dangers of Grindylows due the next day, and she had heard a rumor that there was going to be pop quizzes every day next week in transfiguration to 'help prepare them for exams'.

Needless to say, Lily was a bit preoccupied. So can you blame her for forgetting her date?

James Potter landed his broomstick on the field with a squelching 'thump'. The previous day's rain had soaked the pitch and made takeoff and landing more difficult. Of course, that didn't stop James. He landed ever gracefully (a word not associated with him outside of the Quidditch pitch) and began his walk back to the castle. Between Quidditch practice, exams, and his monthly adventures with his friends, James was having a hard time keeping up with it all. So can you really blame him for forgetting his date?

Covered in mud, bruised, sweaty, and exhausted, the Gryffindor seeker made his way towards the tower, taking all the shortcuts he knew in an effort to avoid Filch, the caretaker. He dodged both the caretaker and his strangely astute cat, made it to the tower, and was about to give the password to the expectant portrait when he spotted a mass of books with legs walking towards him.

No, that wasn't right. James gave his glasses a quick swipe on his sleeve (which probably did more harm than good considering the amount of dirt on his robes) and looked again. He quickly realized it was not a floating mass of books, it was instead a person carrying enough books to cover their face, leaving only the barest trace of flaming red hair poking above the stack.

 _Oh shit._

Lily easily made her way down the hallway towards Gryffindor tower despite the books in front of her face. She had cleverly charmed them so she could see through them and watch her footing, even if someone on the other side could not. And as it turned out, there was a person on the other side of the stack of books.

It all caught up with Lily like lightning.

 _Oh hell._

She stopped dead, trying to let her thoughts catch up with her.

 _Maybe he hasn't seen me. There's a load of books in front of me. Maybe I can just follow behind him into the tower, run upstairs really fast and then he won't see me._

"Uh hey Evans." James cleared his throat awkwardly. Lily sighed and poked her head around the stack of books.

"Hey James…" James regained his composure quickly and smiled impishly at her.

"You too huh?"

"Me too, what?" Lily asked, blowing a strand of hair out of her face.

"Did you forget about…?" James trailed off, unsure.

"Oh! Yeah, I'm sorry, I got so caught up with homework and studying for these exams and pop quizzes-"

"Hey don't worry about it! I'm really prepared for a date right now." James gestured down to his muddy robes, broom still in hand. Lily smiled but said nothing, the weight of the books finally catching up with her.

"You couldn't give me a hand with these, could you?" She asked, her face pink and sweaty.

"Oh yeah of course!" James reached out and took the first couple of books, his hand accidentally brushing Lily's face.

"Oh, sorry." He said quickly, pulling back. Lily said nothing, just blushed.

"Hey, why don't we just go out now?" James asked suddenly, the idea occurring to him instantly. Lily looked at him disbelievingly.

"What like this? It's not like we can go anywhere… I mean I have a bunch more stuff to get done, and I'm sure you haven't even started your homework-"

"Then let's not go anywhere. Let's just walk around the grounds. I have most of your books anyway, so you don't have to worry about lugging them around. Let's just wander and, I dunno, talk." James smiled and ran a hand through his hair, spreading mud through the locks. Lily paused a moment, then smiled in return.

"Yeah okay, let's do that."

James and Lily turned around and walked back out of the castle, wandering around the lake, the greenhouses, and even making it past the Gamekeeper, Ogg's, little hut. They were of course, chided for being out late, but that didn't break the spell that seemed to be over them both.

By the time James and Lily made it back to the castle, the night air was crisp and windy leaving their noses, ears, and one of their hands cold.

The other of course, was warm in the other's grasp.


	5. Quidditch

Chapter 5: Quidditch

The wind whipped mercilessly spraying the crowd with ice cold rain. It was the last game of the season, the deciding game for the House Cup. Gryffindor verses Slytherin. The weather couldn't be worse for the game; strong wind, dark clouds, freezing rain, but you wouldn't know it looking at the crowd. The stands were waves of green and silver, red and gold. There was screaming, cheering, and heckling, proving how close the game was.

The score was 40-50, Slytherin. Gryffindor needed to beat Slytherin by 160 points in order to win the cup. The score had gone back and forth all game. First Gryffindor was 10 points ahead, then Slytherin. Back and forth. James had never been more frustrated. He sped across the field following Carl Travis, one of Slytherin's chasers, and cutting him off as he tried to knock Hannah Hart, one of the Gryffindor chasers, off her broom. Travis grunted in frustration and retaliated by flying his broom into James, knocking into his left shoulder. The scarlet and gold crowd was instantly in uproar at this obvious foul, but when Madam Hooch spun around, Travis was already across the field.

James rolled his shoulder to get some feeling back into it, then sped off, following Hannah, who had taken the Slytherin's momentary lapse in concentration to score.

"And that's 10 points to Gryffindor!" The magically magnified voice of Bertha Jorkins echoed around the pitch. "This is a tense game folks! Gryffindor needs just one more score to win! - providing they catch the snitch of course. But if Slytherin catches the snitch before that happens, it's game over and Slytherin wins the cup!"

Bruce Bardwell, the Slytherin seeker, was circling the pitch, closely following the Gryffindor seeker, Taylor Rowley. It was clear that Bardwell was letting Taylor do all the work, while he just waited to swoop in and claim a Slytherin victory.

James huffed indignantly. He flew quickly to the center of the field, catching the quaffle as a Slytherin player fumbled it. He laughed and started flying towards to Slytherin goal, and then he heard it. The gasps, cheering and hollering that could only mean one thing. James spared a moment to look behind him and watched in horror as Bardwell and Taylor flew side by side, both of their arms outstretched towards something small, gold, and shimmering.

James clutched the quaffle closer to his chest and flew as fast as he could towards the goal posts, the Slytherin beaters close behind him.

"Potter with the quaffle! He flies towards the Slytherin side of the pitch, but will he be able to score before someone catches the snitch?"

James dodged a bludger aimed at his head only by doing a ridiculous spin mid-air, then flew as fast as his broom would take him, willing it to be enough. He heard the voice of Travis say "Give me that!" and then there was a sharp pain in James' left shoulder. His whole arm went numb and he tried desperately to hold onto the quaffle with his one arm that wasn't useless.

"Ouch! Looks like Slytherin chaser Carl Travis could be a beater too! Not technically against the rules here for a chaser to use the beaters bat, but still a crude maneuver."

James flew the last couple of meters to the goal post, his eyes watering in pain, and threw the quaffle with all his might.

Lily was in the stands, a striped scarlet and gold scarf wrapped around her neck, all the way up to her nose. She sniffed, wishing she had brought tissues when Remus Lupin tapped her on the shoulder.

"Here, use this." He said, passing her a handkerchief.

"Thanks." She said, taking it gratefully. "I didn't even know people carried these anymore."

"They don't!" Said Sirius, who was sitting beside Remus. "That's what makes it so funny!"

The crowd around them booed and hissed and Lily focused again on the game. She watched as James flew expertly around the field, trying to score the last 10 points needed for a Gryffindor victory. Then before they knew it, the seekers were rushing towards the ground following the snitch.

"Oh!" Lily exclaimed as her gloved hands flew to her face. She watched as James rushed towards the Slytherin goal posts, then heard the resounding CRACK as the bludger hit home on his left shoulder. The crowd around them gasped and cried out, but the jeers from the Slytherin side were still easily discernable.

"Come on come on!" Remus muttered under his breath, his posture rigid.

"I don't know if I can watch." Sirius said, both hands pulling at his hair.

Lily followed the quaffle with wide eyes as it soared towards the goal post. She tensed, watching it all as if in slow motion. The green and silver clad keeper dove in front of the goal to block the quaffle, but it was too little too late. The ball brushed his fingers as it passed directly through the hoop.

"He did it!" Cried Lily, jumping up and down as Sirius and Remus cheered. It seemed then that time had sped up. Taylor managed to knock Bardwell's hand out of the way and grab the snitch moments after James made the goal, securing the Gryffindor victory.

The crowd erupted with a sound like an explosion. Cheers and laughter reverberated around the stadium as Gryffindor celebrated their victory. Lily laughed as Sirius tried to get Remus to join in his victory dance, but it died out quickly as she glanced back out at the pitch. It seemed that the pain in James' arm was too much. He hovered for a moment, then fainted, his broom plummeting to earth.

"He's falling!" Lily cried, but the crowd was too engrossed in celebrations for her voice to be heard. Without thinking, Lily jumped over the guard rail and sprinted across the field, pushing players out of the way. The Slytherin team had just landed, anger and defeat written on their features. By the time Lily elbowed her way past them, James was on the ground. Lily ran over, panting.

"James! Are you-" Her question caught in her throat as the chaser sat up, dazed but apparently unharmed.

"Hey." James said, apparently still a bit confused. "Evans, I'm fine. Takes a lot more than that to hurt this hard skull."

Lily laughed, panic leaving her chest, and then she was kissing him with a fervor she had never felt before. James kissed her back, hardly daring to believe what was happening. He deepened the kiss, reveling in the feel of her lips against his, cold from the wind and rain. He went to lift his arm to tangle his hand in her soft red locks, but pulled back quickly as pain shot through him.

"Oh, your arm! Are you okay? What can I do?" Lily fretted around James, not sure what to do.

"Well for starters you could stop snogging him long enough for Madam Pomfrey to have a look at him." Sirius and Remus had arrived, Remus looking embarrassed but pleased, and Sirius ready to start the teasing.

"Well done, mate." He said to James. "I'd give you a congratulatory clap on the shoulder but something tells me that's a bad idea." James smiled.

"Hey go ahead and try it. I'll show you how bad an idea it is."

Just then Madam Pomfrey arrived, her wand at the ready.

"Potter, you better come with me. We'll get you sorted out. It doesn't look like anything more than a fractured bone and some bruising-" She was cut off by Lily sneezing. The healer looked at her. "Ah, still sick are you? Better come with me as well, we'll get you some pepper up potion."

Lily rubbed at her nose but didn't protest. In retrospect it was probably a bad idea for her to have sat in the rain and wind for so long.

"We'll meet you guys back at the common room!" Remus called as James and Lily dutifully followed Madame Pomfrey back to the castle.

"Yeah, then it'll be party time!" Sirius called, pumping his fist in the air. Remus rolled his eyes and James laughed.

James sat on one of the hospital wing beds, his shoulder wrapped up firmly to keep the bones from healing incorrectly. Lily sat on the bed beside his, holding the pepper up potion in her hands.

"Why aren't you drinking it?" James asked, nodding to the potion.

"I, um, I don't like pepper up potion." Lily said, keeping her eyes fixed on the cup in her hands.

"Well yeah it doesn't taste amazing, but if you gulp it down you don't have to taste it for long." James watched Lily as she shrugged, saying nothing. He waited patiently for her to speak.

"It's not really that." She said finally. "I don't like how it makes you steam at the ears for so long afterword." James looked at her quizzically. "With my red hair… I feel like a firetruck." She said, finally meeting James' gaze.

James laughed, not unkindly. "Is that all? Well here, I'll help." James reached out with his good arm and took the potion from Lily's hands. He took a swift gulp from the cup and instantly his face took on a reddish hue and steam came out of his ears. He gave the potion back to Lily, smiling.

"There. Now at least you won't be the only firetruck at the party." Lily stared at him for a moment and then laughed loudly.

"Alright. Here's to being a firetruck." Lily raised the glass towards James, then gulped down the potion. James laughed as steam came out of Lily's ears.

"See there you go! It's not that bad. If it helps, you're the only firetruck I've ever been attracted to." Lily laughed again as Madam Pomfrey returned and removed James' wrappings with a wave of her wand.

"Alright, that's the two of you better. Off you go now." With a wave of her hand, Madam Pomfrey ushered the two out of the hospital wing and began attending to the beds filled with students with various stages of the cold and flu.

James and Lily began the walk towards Gryffindor tower.

"So was that the last one?" James asked casually as they waited for one of the staircases to come back. "The last kiss, I mean. If I have to fall off a broom in order to get you to kiss me… I don't know how often I'll be willing to risk bodily harm. When your face is this perfect, you don't want to mess it up."

Lily stared at him.

"You're not serious."

"No, I'm James. Did you think I was Sirius this whole time? Because that would really put a damper on our relationship-"

"Oh shut up." Lily said, grabbing him by his Quidditch robes and pressing her mouth firmly against his. When they finally broke apart, James' smile could have lit up the corridor.

"Talking too much to get you to kiss me. Now that's something I can do." Lily laughed and shook her head as James leaned in for another kiss.


End file.
